In Genesis 3:1-5 We are given four ways Satan attacked God in his deception of Eve:
• Vs. 1a “Has God indeed said,”: Attack upon the Word of God. The root of all sin is to be found in doubting God’s Word. Life hangs upon obedience to His word, His word is to be the standards of life. The lie is that by disobedience to God’s Word we will become more like Him. The way Satan gets you to doubt is always the same, by attacking God’s character and nature.
• Vs. 1b “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”: Attack upon the grace of God. He gets Eve and us to doubt God’s “goodness” towards us. God had said that Adam and Eve could “of every tree… eat freely!” God is not restrictive in nature, God is not some sort of cosmic spoilsport waiting to take away all that is fun and enjoyable in life. So what’s under attack? It is God’s nature of grace towards us.
• Vs. 4 “You will not surely die.”: Attack upon God’s righteousness. “Those consequences will never happen!” says Satan. We see this lie a lot don’t we? It is the lie that says that there are no adverse effects to our actions. We are so easily deceived into thinking that there are no consequences to our disobedience, “No one will ever find out!”
• Vs. 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Attack upon the holiness of God. Satan is declaring that God’s motives are impure, “He is jealous of your “human potential!” “He is trying to keep you from being like Him. God’s just holding you back!”
Satan’s temptation caused Eve to do two things:
• Vs. 2 Leave out God’s Word: Comparing Eve’s words to that of God’s in 2:16 you will discover that she left out the word “freely”. This is the word that expresses God’s love and grace towards them. Instead of seeing God’s glorious provision by His grace towards them she choose to see a restriction in which she leaves out His grace altogether.
• Vs. 3 Add to God’s Word: God had said that they could “freely” eat of “every” tree and that only “one” tree was off limits because in would rip them off from fellowship with Him. Here she adds to the Word of God by adding two phrases:
• “in the midst of the garden”: The tree that was in the midst of the garden according 2:9 was the tree of life and there was no prohibition against eating it. Eve is confused as she ignores God’s grace and instead sees God dangling a carrot with the “tree of knowledge of good and evil”, and then slapping her hand as she desires it. She concludes that this tree was too accessible and God is just teasing them.
• “nor shall you touch it”: Not only that, God is way too restrictive and punitive. “Why, God’s so strict that we are not even allowed to touch the thing and if we do that’s it fried!” She is making God the author of sin and temptation. “It’s His fault!” “If He did not want me to eat the fruit then he should have not placed it so near me that I could not help myself!”
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